The first phase was a reaction to the Russian invasion, raising money for refugees, and the need to keep the Ukraine national team players match fit for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
The main objective of the tour was to help raise money for the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion and to support Ukrainians who have been displaced by the war.
For the majority of the games on the Shakhtar tour, both teams have played without a sponsor on the front of their shirts, instead, wearing a Ukrainian flag with "Stop War" written on it in the sponsorships' place.
The singing performances for the Legia game were from Tina Karol, Julia Sanina (from the band The Hardkiss), Kateryna Pavlenko, and Dorofeeva.
The initiative was set up so that people could make a ticket donation online so that a Ukrainian refugee living in Gdańsk would be able to attend the game for free.
Despite the loud support for the home team, Dynamo comfortably won the match 3–1 with both Buialskyi and Besedin each scoring in their second consecutive game of the tour.
[22] While warming up, Shakhtar players wore t-shirts showing a picture of a 4 year old Ukrainian girl called Alisa, who has been trapped in Mariupol during the siege, and at the time of the game had spent 55 days living underground in a bunker.
[32] Dynamo announced in the same statement that the tour in Romania would instead see the club facing the Romanian champions CFR Cluj on 20 April.
[36] Fund raising efforts took place before the match, with Borussia selling blue and yellow wristbands with all of the proceeds being donated to charity.
While both teams continued to attack and ultimately score goals, Dynamo secured their third victory of the tour with a 3–2 win over the German footballing giants.
Before the Dynamo game against their namesake, Dinamo, the Croatian club announced that it would releasing a special shirt with a limited run of 1000 to be sold to fans with all of the profits going towards the humanitarian effort that the tour is supporting.
[43] Viktor Korniyenko joined the Shakhtar team for the first time on the tour, having taken part in the territorial defence of Poltava region.
[47][48] As was becoming common for games involving Dynamo, both teams started at a fast pace, with Basel having many opportunities early in the match.
[53] In early April it was announced that Ukraine national team manager Oleksandr Petrakov wanted to prepare a training camp so that the team would be fully prepared for their World Cup qualifier against Scotland, the potential qualifying match for the World Cup with Wales if the first game was won and the three Nations League matches against Republic of Ireland (x2) and Armenia.
The month-long training camp was organised due to the suspension of the Ukrainian football league and that many of the national team's players would not have the match fitness needed to play competitively in the international games.
[60] On 13 May, Petrakov released a list announcing the names of those Ukrainian players who play in international leagues who would be joining the training camp.
Due to some leagues finishing later than others, Vitaliy Mykolenko (Everton), Eduard Sobol (Club Brugge), Andriy Yarmolenko (West Ham United), Oleksandr Zinchenko (Manchester City) and Ruslan Malinovskyi (Atalanta) were unable to join the national team until 23 May.
The Ukraine squad was bolstered by additional players whose clubs domestic seasons had finished after the nations game with Borussia.
This would prove to be the winning goal, as although both teams continued to have chances, neither side could find the back of the net late into the match.
[63] The national team travelled to Croatia for their second game of their double header, this time with HNK Rijeka hosting the Ukrainian side.
Ukraine was the stronger of the two teams starting the match, scoring their opening goal from a deflected shot that gave the goalkeeper no chance of saving.
Despite a late goal from Scotland, Ukraine held off for a convincing 3–1 win and progressed to a final qualifying match on 5 June against Wales.
While the players of Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk had taken their breaks during the international games, the national team players needed a break themselves before the start of the season, especially those playing in foreign leagues as the resumption of most leagues was to start earlier than usual due to the 2022 World Cup taking place during the winter instead of its usual time during the summer.
Dynamo played Lyon in Bourgoin-Jallieu) Notes Although the Ukrainian Premier League had been cancelled for the 2021–22 season, Ukraine were still given their 5 spaces to compete in the European club competitions.
As the league was unable to finish and there were no final standings the Ukrainian Football Association decided that the teams who would represent Ukraine on the European stage would be those who were in the top 5 when the season was paused and later cancelled.
The match started in a slower pace than usual, with both sides struggling to make goalscoring chances other than through set pieces.
Later into the first half both sides started to open up more, with Dynamo having the clearest goalscoring chance, which was saved by the Young Boys goalkeeper.
Dynamo showed threats throughout the match, but after failing to capitalise on their dominant periods two second half goals from Dwight McNeil saw Everton taking a convincing 3–0 lead.
[110] Dynamo Kyiv also raised additional funds during their Champions League qualifying rounds, where a QR code shown on TV throughout the matches sent people who scanned the image to a donation page.
By 28 April 2022, 2 months after the outbreak of the war, 9 tons of humanitarian aid had been raised and donated by the EFDN (Netherlands), Fundacja Legii (Legia Warsaw, Poland), Fundação Benfica (Benfica Foundation, Portugal), AFC Wimbledon, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Chesterfield, Colchester United, Foundation 92 (a Salford City charity), Leicester City (all in England), KAA Gent (Belgium), Heart of Midlothian, Montrose (both Scotland), and Schalke 04 (Germany).